Lecture 7 Flashcards
(17 cards)
What research evidence demonstrates innate moral judgement and innate moral behavior in babies and toddlers?
- Judgment: research shows infants at just 3 or 6 months prefer “helpers” to “hinderers”, that they’ll reward “good” and punish “bad”. (Karyn Wyn puppet lab)
- Behavior: toddlers in research lab will pick up item that researcher drops, or open the cabinet if they are struggling.
How would you describe initial vs mature morality?
1) instinctive, gut level, emotional. Biased toward our now kind. Founded in biological nature.
2) Rational, impartial, unselfish, product of cultural development.
How did Piaget test moral judgment in children? What were the stages he outlined?
1) interviewed children about the rules of the game of marbles
2) Morality of Constraint (5-7 years)
- rules are absolute and must be followed
- rules handed down by authorities and can’t be changed
- “imminent justice”, people who break rules should be punished
- focuses on consequences, not intentions…. boy spilling ink interview question, children punish based off consequence. He wasn’t quite right about this though.
Transitional period (8-10 years)
- peer interaction is key, rules are made for people to get along and are more flexible
- if changing the rules would benefit the majority, that could be fine
Autonomous Morality (11+ years)
- moral relativism
- rules are relative and can be changed
- rules help people get along
What are some counter evidence to Piaget’s claims?
Children younger than 7
- don’t always consider adult authority as absolute (if a teacher tells you its okay to hit, they will disagree)
- distinguish moral rules from social conventions (we don’t hit vs we all line up to go outside)… understand violating social convention isn’t punishable the same way
- understand the role of intentions in moral judgments.
How did Kohlberg study morality in children? What were the levels he came up with?
1) Longitudinal study of boys 10-16, interview style, presented children with a moral dilemma and was interested in not a yes or no, but their justifications.
2) Preconventional level: rewards/punishments
- pro: if you let your wife die, you’ll get in trouble
- con: you shouldn’t steal, cause you’ll get caught and sent to jail.
Conventional level: social norms
- pro: your family will think you’re inhuman if you don’t save your wife
con: you’ll feel bad thinking you brought dishonor on your family by stealing
Postconventional level (not everyone makes it to this one)
- focuses on moral principles that apply to different situations in different societies
pro: although there’s a law, the law wasn’t made to prevent the right to life, law should be reinterpreted.
What are some strengths of Kohlberg’s theory?
- identified systematic changes with age
- found relation to moral behavior - whatever stage of judgment they were in, it reflected behavior. Deliquent adolescents had lower moral reasoning scores, student activists have higher ones.
What are some weaknesses of Kohlberg’s theory?
- cultural bias, his framework didn’t account for different religions and cultures leading to differences in moral reasoning
- gender bias (Gilligan argued his theory doesn’t reflect moral reasoning of women/ethic of caring for others)
- doesn’t account for children under 5 although 3-4 yr olds can reason systematically about moral issues and distinguish from social conventions
- unrealistic dilemmas from a child’s point of view
How did Nancy Eisenberg study prosocial reasoning? What were the levels she came up with?
1) focused on younger children, gave them real-world moral dilemmas they could salted to (coming across kid who fell over on their way to a birthday party or something like that)
2)
Hedonistic Orientation: pursue own needs (they wouldn’t want to miss the cake and be hungry)
Needs-based orientation: concerned about others and want to help, unclear if truly based in empathy
Approval-focused orientation: elementary schoolers/adolescents get this one a lot, society expects good behavior, i.e. “the girl will liked me more if I help her”
Empathic orientation: considering not just need of other person, but how they feel/their perspective. “I would feel bad if I didn’t help because she would be in pain.”
What is prosocial behavior and when does it develop?
1) Actions that benefit others.. altruism is a particular form of helping with no direct benefit to self
2) 2-3 years old… at this point kids comfort others, show concern, and help out, all from egocentric perspective but still shows empathy and attempt to help.
Increases from preschool years to adolescence
What are three things it takes to engage in prosocial behavior?
1) Perspective taking (what do people need or want, how is that different from your own)
2) empathy
3) moral reasoning (more advanced = more likely to engage in prosocial behavior)
What are circumstances when you are more likely to engage in prosocial behavior?
When you feel responsible, competent, in the mood, and don’t have to sacrifice too much
How can parents encourage prosocial behavior
- Using reason to discipline child, especially with reference to thoughts and feelings of others… when they feel they understand reasons behind actions
- modeling
- praising altruistic behavior
- assigning household chores, communicating benefit of teamwork
How does aggression develop over early childhood?
- physical aggression emerges around 18 months
- increases until age 2-3, then decreases
- decreases due to increase in language, so verbal aggression increases thereafter
What are three types of aggression?
- instrumental (proactive): unemotional, unprovoked, to achieve a goal
- hostile (reactive): emotionally driven, response to a perceived threat
- relational: to undermine social relationships
How do cognitive biases affect children’s aggressive behavior? What do these cognitive biases often come from?
- children who have expectancy about world that other kids are hostile will interpret aggressive intentions and retaliate with aggression
- this is called the hostile attribution bias
- can originate in physical abuse, insecure attachment, and modeling of hostile attributions by others
What are four ways people try to control aggression, and how effectives are they?
1) catharsis, like acting out aggression on inanimate object, does not work - shows child that this is acceptable way to express oneself
2) punishing aggressive behavior: problematic, often a bad model, often children are trying to get their cparent’s attention through aggressive behavior, so this is enforced
3) rewarding non-aggressive behavior : catching them when they’re kind or helpful. works well
4) empathy training: works well, decreases aggression in bullies
What are some biological and environmental/social factors contributing to aggression and antisocial behaviors?
1) twin studies suggest it runs in families, probably due to genetic influence on temperament
- heredity has more influence on these behaviors in early childhood and adulthood versus adolescence, where environmental factors are more at play
- some kids have genes that make them more susceptible to bad (or good) parenting environment
2) - harsh physical punishments can lead to hostile attribution bias, teach aggressive solutions, and positive expectations about outcomes of aggression
- poor parental monitoring
- parental conflict (modeling aggression, also predicts hostile parenting)
- SES: stress, neighborhood violence, lack of opportunities
- Peer influence
